Veneer-clipper safety guard



' y 9, 19150 A. MUELLER VENEER-CLIPPER smm GUARD Y LINCOLN A. MUELLER \IIIIIIV.

Filed July 11, 1946 Patented May 9, 1950 OFFICE VENEER-CLIPPER SAFETY GUARD Lincoln A. Mueller, Mlssoula, Mont. dedicated to the free use of the People in the territory of the United States Application July 11, 1946, Serial No. 682,759

(Granted under the act of March 3, 1883, as

amended April 30, 1928; 370 0. G. 757) 2 Claims.

This application is made under the act of March 3, 1883, as amended by the act of April 30, 1928, and the invention herein described, if patented, may be manufactured and used by or for the Government of the United States of America for governmental purposes without the payment to me of any royalty thereon.

I hereby dedicate the invention herein described to the free use of the People in the territory of the United States to take effect on the granting of a patent to me.

This invention relates to a safety guard used with a machine for clipping the edges of a sheet of veneer, such as a wood ply of the type used in laminated wood assemblies, and has among its objects the provision of a guard which is positioned on the machine forward of the knife and low enough to prevent the operator from running his fingers under the guard into the path of the knife, yet not to interfere with visibility of the knife especially where it comes in contact with the DIY, and to provide a guide for uiding a rough or crumpled veneer ply under the knife without requiring that the operator press the high parts of the edges of the crumpled ply down with his fingers to insert and adjust it under the knife.

In general, according to the invention, a generally rectangular guard is formed of a transparent sheet of material and is im'movably mounted on the clipper normal to the work table and parallel to and forwardly of the movable knife of the clipper, the bottom edge of the guard being spaced from the work table such distance that the operator views the cutting edge of the clipper through the guard, and the edge of the guard forms a guide under which the edge of the ply is inserted, the edge of the guard serving to hold fiat crumpled or rough edges of the ply, the guard being of sufllcient width to prevent the operator from inserting his fingers between the sharpened cutting edges of the clipper. The bottom edge of the guard is rolled, thus forming an inclined surface for aiding and guiding the ply into place. In addition, an elongated, gaseous discharge light is mounted above the clipper parallel to and slightly forwardly of the knife, so that a shadow line is cast by the edge of a bar used for mounting the guard to fall on or near the line where the knife strikes the ply, thus to aid the operator in locating the clipping edge.

For a detailed description of the invention, ref-' erence is made to the accompamring drawing, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of a portion of the clipper showing the safety guard mounted thereon; and

Figure 2 is a section on the line 22 of Figure 1.

In the drawing, only one corner of the clipper is shown. The clipper itself is of usual design, and is provided with a flat, horizontal work table H and a rigidly mounted, stationary, elongated shear-block 42 having a sharpened cutting edge !3. The movable knife 14 is secured to a rigid, vertically-movable block I5 guided at its end in a suitable guide slot arranged in the side arm 46 of the clipper. A similar arrangement is provided at the other end of the vertically-movable block (not shown) In operation ,the knife moves downwardly so that its cutting edge I! shearingly passes the cutting edge [3 of the stationary shearblock, thus to shear off the edge of a ply such as shown at it.

In use, if unprotected, the operator tends to use his hands to hold down the edges of a crumpled ply when inserting and adjusting it under the knife, and sometimes thoughtlessly trips the knife with a finger or fingers in line of the moving knife, thus resulting in undesired amputation.

The present invention avoids this injury by provision of a guard which makes it impossible for the operator to insert his fingers under the knife, and yet it does not interfere with visibility of the knife at the shearing edge of the ply.

The guard 20 is formed-of a rectangular sheet of transparent material, preferably a. plastic bent into a roll shape at its lower edge, as shown at 2!, which is spaced from the work table. Means for mounting the guard on the veneer-clipper is provided by a supporting bracket 22 in the form of an angle bar with one leg 23 extending downwardly toward the table and the other leg 24 extending forwardly. The bar is mounted parallel to the knife and rigidly fixed at one end to the side arm 16 as shown at 25, the other end (not shown) being similarly fixed. The guard 20 is suitably fixedly attached to the downwardly extending arm '23, as by screws, with the roll-shape, free, lower edge spaced from the work table forwardly of the knife such distance that the guard acts as a guide for positioning and holding the crumpled ply of veneer properly in line with the knife, but prevents the operator from inserting his fingers between the cuttingwedges of the clipper.

An elongated, gaseous discharge light 30 provided with a suitable reflector 3| is mounted in any desired manner so that the shadow line, as shown at 32 in Figure 2, cast by the forward edge 68 33 of the leg it falls along or near the line where the knife strikes the ply, thus to aid the opera- ;tor in properly positioning the ply when making ,the clip.

In use, the operator simply slides the ply under Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is:

1. In a veneer clipper having a flat work table, a sharpened stationary cutting edge and a mov- Iable knife shearingly passing the cutting edge, a safety guard comprising a generally rectangular sheet of transparent material, and a bar secured to the clipper parallel to the knife and to which the guard is secured with one edge of the guard spaced from the work table forwardly of the knife such distance that the guard acts as a guide for positioning and holding the crumpled ply of veneer properly in line with the knife but prevents the operator from inserting his fingers between the sharpened cutting edge and the knife, said bar having a forwardly extending leg and a light so positioned that a shadow line cast by the forward edge of the leg falls along or near the line where the knife strikes the ply.

2. In a veneer clipper having a flat work table. a sharpened stationary cutting edge and a movable knife shearingl passingthe cutting edge, a safety guard comprising a rectangular shaped sheet of transparent material and means immovably mounting the guard on the veneer clipper normal to and with one edge spaced from the work table forwardly of the knife such distance that the guard acts as a guide for positioning and holding a crumpled ply of veneer properly in line with the knife, said guard being of sufficient width to prevent th operator from inserting his fingers between the sharpened cutting edge and the knife and having the edge thereof, which is spaced from the work table, rolled, thus forming an inclined surface for aiding and guiding the ply into place.

LINCOLN A. MUELIER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,095,874 Jella May 5, 1914 1,433,799 Caywood Oct. 31, 1922 2,357,194 Hazelton a Aug. 29, 194% 2,376,460 Strandberg May 22, 1945 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 459,241 Germany Apr. 30, 1928 

